Tornado Cash Lawsuit Blows Away

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Well, darling, it seems the U.S. government has decided to take a rather dignified exit from its lawsuit against Tornado Cash, that frightfully clever crypto mixer. It’s all a bit of a kerfuffle, really. Both the Department of the Treasury and that dashing advocacy group, Coin Center, have agreed to have the suit declared moot, effective June 28, 2025, court documents reveal. How very civilized of them! 🙏

Apparently, lawsuits are considered moot when there’s no longer a need to litigate the issue at hand. Rather like a party that’s gone flat, one supposes. The Treasury had already removed those dreadful economic sanctions against Tornado Cash in March. One does wonder what all the fuss was about in the first place. 🤔

For the uninitiated, mixers like Tornado Cash anonymize transactions by scrambling the paths between senders and receivers of cryptocurrencies. All very cloak-and-dagger, if you ask me. The controversy, of course, arises when they’re used for nefarious purposes. That frightful “Lazarus Group” from North Korea, for instance, used Tornado Cash to launder a whopping $455 million in stolen funds in 2022. How very naughty of them! 😳

Peter Van Valkenburgh, the Executive Director of Coin Centre, wrote a rather triumphant post on X, declaring, “This is the official end to our court battle over the statutory authority behind the TC [Tornado Cash] sanctions. The government was not interested in moving forward and defending their dangerously overbroad interpretation of sanctions laws.” Well, one can’t say one’s surprised, really. 😏

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2025-07-08 02:57